Page 65 of A Heart Falls Cowboy Christmas

And right now? It wasn’t Sasha’s either.

She focused on her meal and worked to get her temper under control. Her face felt flushed and hot as she thought it through.

Uncle Frank hadn’t argued with her or snapped. He hadn’t even told her she was wrong. He’d taken her suggestion, flattened it with a rude comment, and gone on to what he thought was more important.

Fine. She was here to listen and learn.

Maybe what she was going to learn was the answer to her moving to Crooked Creek needed to be no.

Over the years there had been plenty of times Luke had felt exhausted. Working the ranch through all sorts of weather conditions and emergencies, sometimes short-handed, meant being ready to do what needed to be done and keep going.

Babies in the house put exhaustion into a whole new light.

Across the room, Tucker folded his arms over his chest and offered Ginny his most competent smile as Demi danced around his knees. “It’s okay, goddess. You and Kelli go ahead. We got this.”

The babies were a month old now, and they’d just been fed. While there was no reason the ladies couldn’t simply pack them up and take them across the yard to Tamara’s, Luke wanted time with his new little girl. Tucker wanted David around.

“The babies are sleeping. It’ll be fine,” Luke assured Kelli.

She raised a brow but didn’t say anything.

Next to Kelli, Ginny obviously tried to fight the urge, but finally gave in. “Call if you need us.”

“Like hell,” Tucker muttered under his breath the instant the ladies closed the door. He turned to Luke. “We got this, right?”

“Absolutely. Just don’t say something like ‘how hard can it be?’ and curse us, okay?”

For nearly twenty glorious minutes, it seemed as if they actually knew what they were doing.

David stirred first, making soft little snuffling noises. Tucker lifted him to his chest, and the baby settled almost immediately, his tiny fist curled against Tucker’s shirt.

“There,” Tucker said as he met Luke’s gaze smugly. “Natural talent.”

Luke snorted as he scooped Kayla from her bassinet. Yeah, she was quiet, but he needed to hold her. “Mine is asleep before you even finish bragging.”

Tucker grinned. “That’s because you’re so damn boring.”

Kyle and Demi barely glanced up from the collection of toy trucks spread across the kitchen floor. The entire area was surrounded by the child-safety gates Luke had installed after discovering Kyle’s crawling speed doubled when adults weren’t looking.

“The fortress holds,” Tucker observed.

“The fortress is a work of genius.” Luke paced, swaying gently from side to side. “Coffee?”

“Love one.”

They wandered between the kitchen and living room, each gently bouncing a sleeping infant while nursing mugs of coffee.

“You know what I’m looking forward to?” Tucker asked. “Taking them camping.”

Luke nodded. “Dad took us every summer.”

“I remember.” Tucker smiled. “Mostly because my dad never took me so the only camping I ever did was tagging along with your family.”

Tucker was as good as a brother, and their history went so far back…

A memory slid in. “You remember the year I insisted I could start the fire by myself?”

Tucker pretended to consider. “Hmmm. You mean the year you smoked us out for two hours straight?”